I’m personally fascinated by the reporting about how the banks apparently scrutinized EVERY transaction these days, and it doesn’t have to be a $10K transaction to attract attention. Also, if you happen to be “politically exposed,” then they apparently look at your transactions extra hard. And it’s because of 9/ll of course. So my question is: Remember when we could nominally expect some privacy from the government snooping into our every move? Hell, maybe the terrorists actually DID win.

And finally: Now we know why there aren’t as many tellers at the bank anymore. But were they layed off, or did they move into the back room just to watch where we spend our money?

Long Memory - You sound paranoid.

Yanno, they got Al Capone by the money trail, too. Following the money is not a pre-9/11 phenomenon.

Don’t get me wrong, I dislike the Patriot Act, too. But let’s pick the correct dog for the correct hunt, OK?

Yup, the terrorists really did win, as evidenced by the fact that a governor and former attorney general got caught a-whoring (and spending about half of an average US household’s income doing so in under a year). The founding fathers are surely rolling in their graves to see such an erosion of civil liberties.

All conspiracies aside, it’s not that much different from your credit card company calling when you use the card in a manner that is unlike your typical spending habits. Banks can do the same thing systemically, so a series of $2500 transactions that weren’t typical of such an account before could easily flag them for review. Most banks are willfully look for this type of behavior to ensure full compliance with Fed requirements.